Analogue Smoque is an extended work for solo narrator and electronics spread out over two CDs, 15 tracks and 100 minutes. Brandishing a robust radio voice, author and vocalist Mike Silverton smugly spews forth his wry, humorous, dada-inspired, stream-of-consciousness text. His speech is supported, on and off, by experimental musicans Al Margolis’ and Tom Hamilton’s subtle electronic sounds flitting and droning away, forming a strange, static sonic backdrop. Your enjoyment of it all will depend on how big a fan you are of spoken poetry and a kinder, gentler kind of noise.

One could easily imagine the title London Fix attached to an obscure heroin-based concept album by some mid ’70s British glam rock band. Thankfully, in the case of Tom Hamilton’s London Fix, that’s definitely not the case. In fact, it’s practically a whole universe away. Subtitled “Music Changing With the Price of Gold, An Environment of Continuous Electronic Music,” it features one hour-long track teeming with nothing but layer upon layer of pleasantly percolating and droning synths. These real-world instruments were activated by “fluctuations in spot gold price charts via an electronic pitch-making system, mapping the charts to control individual pitch possibilities, range and even portamento.” Fortunately, the composer took pains to avoid any literal, linear transcriptions, yielding musical results that are far more complex, interesting and beautiful. I highly recommend London Fix for fans of Terry Riley, Francois Bayle, etc. Although it may very well be one of a tiny handful of CDs with liner notes that ask the listener to, “Please play softly,” I liked London Fix so much, I just had to crank it up to 11. Sorry, Tom.